Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN), headquartered at UNMC with six geographic sites across Nebraska, is charged with leading state behavioral health workforce development efforts including the recruitment, training and retention of behavioral health workers. Here’s a look at how these geographic sites are key to BHECN making an impact in communities across the state.
Building a strong behavioral health workforce in rural Nebraska takes more than recruiting individual providers. It requires creating pathways into the profession, strengthening professional networks and helping students and clinicians build lasting connections within the communities they serve. Those relationships don’t develop from a central office—they are built locally, over time, through trusted partnerships and sustained community engagement.
This happens in Nebraska communities, not just from a central office. BHECN’s geographic sites are the infrastructure that makes that local work possible in every corner of the state.
Since BHECN’s founding in 2010, the rural behavioral health workforce has grown by 34%.
“That number is proof that intentional investment works,” said Alyssa Spartz, BHECN workforce expansion manager. “Growth like that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we’ve put real effort into building relationships and infrastructure in the communities that need it most.”
Six geographic sites — Central, East, Northeast, Panhandle, Southeast and Southwest — provide a statewide footprint while remaining rooted in the communities they serve. Together, they cover all 93 Nebraska counties, with site directors and co-directors based across the state in Chadron, Kearney, Lincoln, Norfolk, North Platte, Omaha and Rushville. Each site aligns with one of Nebraska’s six Department of Health and Human Services Behavioral Health Regions, allowing local leaders to tailor programs and partnerships to the unique needs of their communities.
Each BHECN site is led by local professionals who implement BHECN’s Nebraska model by building relationships and partnerships, translating vision into action.
BHECN’s geographic sites rely on a wide network of partners who open doors, share expertise and help make local programming possible. These include university programs, local hospitals, behavioral health providers, extension offices and community organizations across the state
Geographic sites are doing crucial “boots-on-the-ground” work. For example, in a region where distances between towns can stretch for hours, the Panhandle site serves as a connector, building relationships.
“This means going where providers already are, not waiting for them to come to you,” said Denise Pecha, BHECN’s associate director for network initiatives. “Making these connections can reduce professional isolation and help improve job satisfaction and retention.”
Over the past two years, BHECN has moved its sites toward a more uniform operating structure, so that a student or provider who relocates from one part of Nebraska to another can count on the same core opportunities and resources wherever they land. At the same time, each site retains the flexibility to shape its own programming around the specific needs of its region.
None of this happens without the providers already in place. “This is hard work, and it takes a certain kind of dedication to show up for your community every single day, especially in places where you might be the only behavioral health provider for miles,” said BHECN director Marley Doyle, MD. “The sites exist to support that work, but the credit belongs to the providers who are already doing it – day in day out – in the communities they call home.”